Halstead is a small country village just a short trip north of London. To get there from London I had to take two trains but all in all it was only an hour trip from Liverpool Street station so it was short and enjoyable. Along for the ride were my parents since they were staying over in London for the weekend and wanted to come with me for support. We arrived in Halstead in a timely fashion and what really struck me about the village was that it is incredibly beautiful. Each and ever garden in the village is pretty much immaculate and even the acres looked like they had been groomed with scissors. So when I saw the village I knew that the running path was going to enjoyable and at least I’d have something nice to look at :)

I wasn’t the only Icelander in the race as Óskar Jakobsson og Hávar Sigurjónsson also took part so there were three Icelanders in a group of less than 500 racers (seriously the world keeps on proofing that it’s really small).

Before running the race I had decided to spend about two to three months with aggressive and strict training so I wouldn’t have any issues at all. This didn’t work out at all. In February when I did the Tough Guy race I busted my knee really badly and had yet to recover completely so I’d been easing into the training process but was again hindered by a trip to Iceland, exams and endless job application processes so all in all I got about two weeks of strict training done before the run. Not the best choice and I reaped what I had sown, not much at all.

I started of the race at a fair pace keeping myself in the faster echelon of racers but as the track turned out to be much hillier than I had expected I gradually slowed down. The fact that the track was hilly was a really bad issue since that meant going uphill exposed my calves to stress and I’m highly prone to calve cramps and going downhill put impact on my knees. My thoughts were basically “Great I’m screwed either way, but I’d do best to continue”.

About midway through the race I’d fallen further and further back in the group and was most likely in the middle of the whole group. My knees felt bad in each step, my calves ached and my thighs were pretty much numb. But I decided to stride on because I’ve never given up on anything that mattered in my life and I wasn’t going to start now. The race started being about getting from one mile marker to another and by the last six miles it seemed that the distances had inceased exponentially. But I finished the race nonetheless.

After this I’m pretty sure that complete marathons are not my thing, I’ll stick to half ones if I take part in one in the future. My knees just can’t handle the pressure of running such a long distance.

My favourite contestant by far was the guy running as Superman, he didn’t go over too fast but he finished and in style:

Because I was running the marathon I wanted to use the opportunity to raise funds for the charity organization CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA. CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA is one of the UK’s leading charities and is dedicated to fighting against the most common childhood cancer.

To advertise the race and donation drive I set up a simple site: LondonHlaup.com. All in all, people donated close to £200 to the charity which I’m really glad about.

If anyone wants to donate to the Children with Leukaemia charity despite the marathon being over, you can do so directly through here: http://www.leukaemia.org/donate/online

Related posts from the blog:

1. Articles of the week (15/2009 & 16/2009)
2. Tough Guy 2009
3. Financial Humor – May 2009

Because I’m running the marathon I want to use the opportunity to raise funds for the charity organization CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA. CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA is one of the UK’s leading charities and is dedicated to fighting against the most common childhood cancer.

If you want to support a good cause with me and donate either a specific amount per km/mile (42/26) or a lump sum please do so. Donations are collected by BmyCharity who collect a list of the donations and keep track of them and then submit them to CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA.

BmyCharity accepts all major credit and debit cards for donations. So if you feel like helping me in raising the funds for CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA please feel free to make donation via BmyCharity.

I will also list the top donators on LondonHlaup.com and hopefully we’ll be able to work together to raise funds that will help CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA with their great work.

I have previously run a number of half-marathons and marathons both as training and in official capacity and am currently in great shape to finish the marathon without any issues.

If you want to promote the fund raising to friends and family and suggest that they donate as well please supply them with a link to LondonHlaup.com.

LondonHlaup.com

Related posts from the blog:

1. Halstead Marathon 2009

From Wikipedia:

Skyr is an Icelandic cultured dairy product, similar to strained yoghurt, though technically Skyr is a very soft cheese. It is said to have originally come from Norway, brought to Iceland by the Norwegian Vikings, but is currently unique to Icelandic cuisine.

Traditionally, skyr is made with pasteurized skimmed milk and live active cultures such as Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus. Then, “skyr condenser” — active skyr, used to ignite bacteria growth, rennet is added, and the milk is left to coagulate. The skyr is then strained through fabric to remove the whey (mysa in Icelandic) and the milk solids retained.

Skyr, in its traditional preparation, has a slightly sour dairy flavor, with a hint of residual sweetness. Commercial Icelandic manufacturers of skyr have added flavors such as vanilla, berries, etc. common to yoghurt to the final product, to increase its appeal. Skyr-based smoothies have become very popular.

Skyr is a very popular health product in Iceland and can also be purchased in parts of the US, UK, and Scandinavia at specialty markets. Varying slightly between brands, unflavored skyr is roughly 12% protein, 3% carbohydrate, and 0.5% fat. It is high in calcium and vitamins commonly found in milk products.

Here is great scene from The Colbert Report which makes fun of Iceland’s horrible state and Skyr:

Related posts from the blog:

1. Heart attack in a can

Note that the woman is doing everything correctly but the men are doing the front squat incorrectly.

The exercise is suppose to be done with 5 set of 5 to 8 reps each with the weights increasing between sets to a maximum weight one at the end. The lifts done in the exercise are:

1) Power clean
2) Front squat
3) Push press (from front of shoulders)
4) Back squat
5) Push press (from behind the shoulders)

Those that are willing can then add:
6) Overhead squat

I tried 5×5 today with weights: 20/30/40/40/45 kg, note 20 kg is an empty bar, with the overhead press and was drenched from sweat after going through the sets. This is really hard. I’m going to try without overhead next time.
If you want to try it be sure to know what you are doing:

How to Power Clean
How to Front Squat
How to Overhead Press
How to Back Squat
How to Overhead Squat

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1. E3 – Game Boy Micro announced

At 23 I was able to hear 16 kHz clearly but nothing beyond that. So how good is your hearing?

8 kHz, 10 kHz, 12 kHz, 14 kHz, 15 kHz, 16 kHz,
17 kHz, 18 kHz, 19 kHz, 20 kHz, 21 kHz, 22 kHz
 

Related posts from the blog:

1. A fairly good weekend
2. Good Cop, Naked Cop

Amrmour’s Pork Brains in Milk Gravy! This small can of 156 grams contains only 150 kcal of energy, 16 grams of protein and 10 grams of carbohydrates and 5 grams of fat but 3.5 grams of cholesterol which is 1170% times your recommended daily dose for a 2000 kcal diet. It also contains 0.55 grams of sodium nitrite, which for those that aren’t familiar with it is according to wikipedia:

Sodium nitrate is used as an ingredient in fertilizers, pyrotechnics, as a food preservative, and as a solid rocket propellant, as well as in glass and pottery enamels; the compound has been mined extensively for those purposes.

Really something you don’t want in your body. Especially given that about 4 grams can be a lethal dose…. But sodium nitrite can be used as an antidote against cyanide poisoning. I didn’t know about it antidotal properties so from now on I’ll always be carrying cans of Pork Brains in Milk Gravy in case I get cyanide poisoning.

Related posts from the blog:

1. My heart will go on

Þá er þáttöku minni í Reykjavíkur maraþoninu þetta árið lokið en ég ákvað að skella mér í hálft maraþon í þetta skiptið þar sem að ég treysti mér ekki alveg í heilt eins og í fyrra. Ég kláraði nr. 107 af 1266 í hálfu maraþoni með tíma:

00:44:43(10KM)
01:37:34(21km)
01:37:23(21km, flaga)
 

Næst á dagskrá er svo heilt maraþon í apríl:

Related posts from the blog:

1. Beint á iPodinn – Maí 2008
2. Hallgeirsey 2008
3. Hallgeirsey 2008